Secrets Abound (Supernaturally Bound Book 1) (8 page)

“Sure.” I took the darts from the kid’s extended hand.

You got three chances to burst balloons hanging on the wall in the back of the booth. The more balloons that you burst, the better prize you won. I had my eye on the oversized seahorse, but it was on the top shelf which meant I had to hit three balloons. I burst the first two but missed the third. I was disappointed but settled on the stuffed puppy.

Aiden took his turn and got all three balloons. He shocked me by pointing to the massive seahorse.

“Here, this is for you.” He said, handing it to me.

“How’d you know I wanted the seahorse?” I asked him.

“I saw your eyes light up when you noticed it.” He explained.

I found myself wearing a shy smile. This suddenly began to feel like a date, but that was silly. He hadn’t asked me here on a date. He’d asked me here as friends, didn’t he? Unsure of what to say, I simply thanked him and let the conversation drop at that as we strolled silently through the carnival.

I was lost in my thoughts when I heard a loud splash and a crowd of people laughing at something. I glanced over curiously and saw a group of kids from school gathered around the dunking booth. Someone would sit on a ledge above a tank of water, and people could pay money to hit the target with a ball which would dunk the person in the tank. You couldn’t use tickets here because the booth was specifically to raise money for charity.

As I moved closer, I realized Jenny was the one sitting in the booth. Jenny was a petite blonde and was one of the most timid people I’d ever met. She was someone I wouldn’t quite consider a friend, but she was an acquaintance of mine. She was someone I talked to on occasion, but our whole relationship was basically me standing up for her.

Jenny used to be friends with Vicky and her minions in seventh grade, but one day, they just dropped her. Ever since then, she was always being bullied by the self-proclaimed “popular” kids. I got to say, though, they weren’t all that popular with everyone else.

They appeared to be up to no good, again. Once I got closer, I saw that Cal was paying to throw more balls. Cal was the star pitcher on our school baseball team. He threw one and, of course, it hit the target and down Jenny went.

Jenny shivered as she lifted herself back onto the ledge. Her lips were a pale blue. It appeared that Cal had been there a while dunking Jenny, and Vicky was standing next to him cheering him on. No surprise there.

I shoved my way to the front of the line. I blocked Cal’s view of the target and crossed my arms. “This booth is closed.”

“Actually, the carnival is open for another fifteen minutes, and I’m feeling charitable.” Cal smirked. He reached down for another ball from the basket that lay on the ground. I kicked his hand, knocking the ball from it. “You bitch!” He grabbed my arm with a fierce grip.

“Don’t touch her.” Aiden stepped in. His voice was low and filled with warning. Cal released me, immediately. Aiden continued, “She said the booth was closed so move along.”

Cal scowled over Aiden’s shoulder at me. “I doubt you’d be acting so tough if your guard dog wasn’t here.”

“Anytime, motherfucker!” I tried shooting around Aiden, but he held me behind him. My fist was itching to meet Cal’s face.

“I’ll hold you to that. Just so you know, I’m not scared to hit a girl.” Cal taunted.

“Me either.” I shot pointedly.

His scowl deepened as rage filled his eyes. He leapt at me, but Aiden interjected by knocking him to the ground.

“Break it up before I call security.” The guy running the booth yelled to the group. “All of you need to go. Right now.”

Jenny was crawling out of the tank and drying off. I never knew whether to console her or shake her for her lack of a backbone.

“Come on.” Aiden tugged at my sleeve. I took one last glance at Jenny over my shoulder. Once I was satisfied that she’d be all right, I followed Aiden.

“I didn’t need your help back there.” I frowned.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Aiden asserted.

“As hard as it might be to believe, I survived by myself for fifteen years before I met you.” I pursed my lips.

“That
is
hard to believe considering the trouble you get yourself into.” He teased.

I rolled my eyes. “I do not get myself into trouble.” I lied.

“Bridget, you just started a fight with the school’s star athlete.” He pointed out.

“I could’ve taken him.” I grinned.

“I’m sure you could’ve.” Aiden laughed.

We made it over to the Ferris wheel just in time for its last ride. The seats were the perfect fit for two people, but since I had my seahorse, I found myself squished between it and Aiden. It was hard to concentrate on the view while our bodies were touching. All I could think about was the way the muscles in his arm felt pressed against my side. Our hands were so close that I had to resist the urge to interlock his with mine.

“Okay, so are you ready to know what I want you to do?” He asked once our seat reached the top of the Ferris wheel.

“Hold on.” I shifted so I could face him. “Okay, go ahead.”

“I want you to go with me to Vicky’s party this weekend.” He announced.

“Whoa, I said within reason.” I threw up my hands.

“It’s just another party, Bridge. We go to parties all the time.” He insisted.

“If it’s just another party, then why are you so determined that we go?” I arched a brow.

“It’s a favor for Ash.” He admitted.

“Why would your brother care if you go to some party?”

“Vicky’s dad has been stealing a lot of his business. Somehow, he’s been staying two steps ahead of Ash, so he’s been trying to get me to go over to Vicky’s house to do some snooping. When she invited me to the party, I thought it’d be the perfect opportunity.” He explained. “It’ll be much easier if I have someone to watch my back.”

“You know, if you had simply told me that in the first place, I would have agreed earlier. And then you wouldn’t have had to waste your request on the party.” I informed him.

“So, you’re willing to go?” He asked.

“Of course, Aiden, what are friends for if not to help infiltrate enemy territory?” I smiled. I still wasn’t looking forward to the party, but at least now I knew the real reason Aiden was going, and it wasn’t because he wanted to hook up with Vicky.

“So, you’re saying I wasted a guaranteed favor from you?” Aiden’s eyes twinkled as his grin reached them.

“Yep. Now you have no leverage over me.” I teased.

“Oh, is that so?” He smirked.

With our feet back on the ground, Aiden placed his hand on my back, guiding me to the exit. The carnival was closing down for the night. My mood was light as we strolled home together.

“Yesterday, you said you already knew what you were going to ask from me.” Aiden commented unexpectedly, as if it had been something on his mind.

“Yes, I did say that.” I replied ambiguously.

“So, what would you have asked for if you had won?” He pressed.

“I suppose you’ll never know, since I lost and all.” I smirked.

“You are such a sore loser.” Aiden laughed, stopping in front of my door.

“Well then, it’s a good thing I don’t lose often.” I joked. Aiden handed me my seahorse. He had carried it home for me while I carried the puppy. “Thanks for everything, tonight. It was fun.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” He paused. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” I replied.

He lingered like he wanted to say something else but decided against it. He sauntered the short distance over to his house. If I had any suspicion that this was anything more than friends hanging out, the lack of a kiss (or even a hug) at the end of the night proved it was not.

I woke up the next morning cuddled beside the stuffed seahorse. It still smelled like Aiden from when he carried it home for me. I took a deep breath inhaling the scent. It smelled woodsy but sweet, like cedar or something. It was definitely the smell of Aiden. I crawled out of bed purposely ignoring the twinge of longing I felt building in my chest.

As I stepped into the shower, I let my mind wander back to the dream I just had. I would have thought my dream would have been all about Aiden, but instead, Jenny was the star of it. I was walking into the school and saw Jenny screaming and tearing papers off the walls. She seemed to be having a meltdown. Her face was red and covered in mascara trailed tears.

I pitied her hurt and tears, but I reminded myself it was only a dream and shook it off. I hurried my shower along as the other girls began to wake up. I knew the knocks for the bathroom would be coming soon. I flung open the door, a towel wrapped around me, to find Clarissa waiting for me to get out. Clarissa was fifteen with blonde hair and blue eyes. We shared a room, but it seemed we hardly saw each other. She was always out with her friends or her boyfriend.

“Aiden’s here.” She brushed past me.

“Where?” I asked glancing around.

“Not
here
here. He’s in our room waiting for you.” She watched me curiously. “Why are you being a spaz? Did your date not go well?”

“I’m not being a spaz and it wasn’t a date.” I affirmed.

“Whatever you say.” She said, putting toothpaste on her toothbrush. “Just be sure to put a sock on the door if you two are going to bump nasties.”

Before I could argue, she closed the door in my face. I rolled my eyes. Just as Clarissa had said, Aiden was sitting on the edge of my bed.

“What’s up? School isn’t for another hour and a half.” I tossed off the towel that was wrapped around my head and threw it in the hamper. My wet hair fell around my shoulders. “Not that you aren’t welcome here anytime.” I added with a smile.

“I’m not going to school today.” He announced.

“Why not?” I sat down next to him on the bed.

“Ash and I are going to England. Our parents need us for a few days.” He explained.

“So, does this mean I don’t have to go to Vicky’s party on Saturday?” I asked hopefully.

“No, I’ll be back Saturday morning. We are still going to that party.” He asserted with a smile. “My flight leaves in a few hours and I wanted to come tell you goodbye.”

“Okay then, I’ll see you Saturday.” I said. He didn’t move to leave, so I asked, “Was that all you wanted to say?”

“Yes and no.” He picked up the seahorse off my bed and began to examine it. “You slept with it last night.”

“Yeah.” I admitted.

He had said it as a statement not a question, but I still felt compelled to answer him. I moved to my closet and picked out an outfit for the day. If he wasn’t going to say what he wanted to say anytime soon, I had might as well start getting ready for school.

“Turn away.” I ordered and he shifted to face the door.

Once I was dressed, I stood in front my mirror and started brushing through my hair. I decided to braid it. It was still wet, so if I took it down later, it’d be wavy. I grabbed my mascara and brushed it on my eyelashes. I never bothered with powder since I never broke out. Once I was ready, I waltzed back over to Aiden. He stood up like he was going to leave, but didn’t.

“I forgot something last night, and I wanted to do it before I left.” He informed me.

“Okay, well what’d you forget?” I glanced around the room. I didn’t remember seeing him with anything when he came over yesterday.

“This.” He grabbed my arm, guiding me to him. He leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips. “I’ll see you Saturday.” He whispered against my mouth. Then he left.

I stared at the door, completely dazed. I slowly brought my fingers to my lips. I didn’t know what to think of it. My lips curled upward into a smile that didn’t fade until the moment I strolled into the school.

The first thing I saw when I waltzed in was Jenny. It was the exact scene from my dream. She was yelling and crying, and she was running around tearing off papers that were taped to the walls. I lost my breath, and my chest tightened up at the sight. I pinched my arm to make sure I wasn’t still asleep.

“Ouch.” I said to myself.

No, I was awake. Part of me was glad for that because of the kiss but part of me was seriously distraught. I didn’t know which I was more concerned over, Jenny’s public breakdown or the fact that I had dreamed of it last night.

I almost slipped on a piece of paper on the ground. I bent down to pick it up and saw why Jenny was so upset. It was a picture of her in her underwear, and there were copies all over the walls and on the floor. Under the picture it read, “For a good time call 402-555-2216”. I was shocked. That was her real number. She was probably getting calls all morning. I was officially more concerned with Jenny, right now. My psychic dream, or whatever it was, could wait.

I gathered up all the papers I could see. Who could have done this? Who would be so cruel? I knew exactly who: Vicky and her gang of plastic Regina George wannabe bitches. I was steaming, now. If I had even as much as seen one of their faces, I probably would have ended the day in jail. Instead, I picked Jenny up off the floor and led her to the principal’s office.

“What happened?” Mrs. Clive, the school secretary, asked obliviously. I handed her one of the flyers.

“These are all over the hallway. Someone’s depraved version of a practical joke.” I told her.

“Oh my!” She exclaimed, her face turning bright red. “I’ll get the principal.”

I waited with Jenny. Mrs. Clive called Jenny’s parents to tell them they needed to come pick her up. Jenny continued crying into my shoulder all the way until the principal finally emerged from his office. He had a serious expression on his face as he scanned us. He gestured for us to join him in his office.

“Ms. White, do you know who could have done this?” He asked Jenny.

“Isn’t it obvious? It was the same people who have been bullying Jenny for years while you’ve turned a blind eye.” I answered for her.

“And who might that be, Ms. King?” His tone was condescending.

“Vicky Sinclair.” I said. He gave me a skeptical look.

“And how exactly would Ms. Sinclair have come into possession of such an indecent picture of Ms. White?”

“Cal.” Jenny whispered barely audible. “I sent that picture to Cal Monahan when he pretended to date me last month.” My jaw dropped. I had no idea Cal had done that or that she’d been gullible enough to fall for it. Let alone that she’d sent that sort of picture to such an asshole. “It’s also all over my Facebook. Vicky’s the only one who knew the password I used.”

“We had better wait for your parents before we discuss anything further.” Principal Heckler’s lips pursed as his face became white. The moment his star pitcher’s name was brought up, he suddenly took this much more seriously. “Ms. King, you can go to class now.”

I gave Jenny a hug and reluctantly went to English. I handed Mr. Krieger my excuse slip for being late and sat down beside Cassie. She gave me a look like she wanted to ask me a million questions. There was a lot I wanted to tell her, too. So much had happened today and it was only eight thirty.

Cassie passed me a folded piece of paper. I unfolded it and read
Is Jenny okay?

I don’t know. She’s upset.
I wrote back.

I can’t believe someone would do that. Poor Jenny.

I know.
I wrote.

So… Not to seem uncaring by changing the subject, but I saw you walking up to the school today and you had a huge grin on your face. I have to know, what happened that made you so happy?

I smiled at her as I read it and remembered the earlier event. I contemplated whether I should tell her. I wasn’t sure what it meant and if I told her, it might seem like I thought it was more than it actually was. Oh well, maybe she could give me some insight on it.

Aiden kissed me this morning.

What? You have to tell me EVERYTHING!
I wrote out the whole story to her and she wrote back.
That’s weird. And then he just left?

Yeah. What do you think it means?”

I don’t know, but you should find out Saturday.
She suggested.

What? I just ask him, straight up?

If he kisses you again before the party is over, then you’ll know he wants to be with you. If he doesn’t, then yes, just ask him what it meant.

The bell rang, and I shoved the note into my bag. I decided I didn’t want to deal with Vicky until I could calm down, so I skipped drama class and spent it on the roof. I almost went for my cigarette stash but decided against it. Instead, I used the time to gather my thoughts and evaluate my dream.

The more I mulled it over, the more confused I became. I felt myself trying to find a reasonable explanation for it, but I was drawing a blank. I guess coincidence could never truly be counted out, but I didn’t think it was the case.

I decided to think about something else. I thought of how I was going to get Vicky and Cal back for what they did. I knew the best way to get revenge would be to simply prove them guilty. If I had irrefutable proof, Principal Heckler wouldn’t be able to brush it under the rug. But how? I’d need to recruit some help.

Next period, I waltzed into algebra early. I sat down beside Curtis, the only freshman in our junior level class.

“Hi Curtis.” I said, giving him a smile and more eye contact than I ever had.

“Hi Bridget.” He responded with a huge grin.

“Is there any way I can get your help with something at lunch today?” I asked in my sweetest voice. I knew it was wrong to use his crush on me like this, but I reminded myself it was for a worthy cause.

“Yeah, absolutely.” He answered without hesitation.

“Great. Can you meet me in the library?” I asked and he nodded.

After BCIS, I headed straight for the library. Curtis was already there waiting for me at a table. I gestured for him to follow me to a computer.

“Okay, so what can I help you with?” He asked me.

I loaded Facebook and searched for Jenny’s profile. It was atrocious. There were so many pictures of her in her underwear, and there were status updates like “I’m feeling horny” or “twenty bucks and I’ll flash the cam”.

Curtis gave me a somber look. He must’ve heard what had happened. It was all everyone was talking about.

“I need to find out who hacked this account. Is that something you can do?”

“Does cold weather make fingernails grow faster?” He asked, as he began typing quickly.

“Um… I don’t know.”

“Yes.” He said, shaking his head. He stopped typing and gazed up at me. “It is most certainly something I can do, but I’ll have to do it from my computer. These computers suck. Also, it might take a few days.”

“That’s fine. I just need you to prove who did it.”

“That, I can do.” He told me and went to finish his lunch period in the cafeteria.

I felt better about it all as I strolled to the darkroom for photography class. I had morphed my anger into resolve, which was much more productive. Now, I could focus on my project without a wandering mind. Not that my mind wouldn’t wander a bit because that’s all it seemed to do, but at least it wouldn’t wander into Jenny territory, for now.

I unlocked the darkroom door and stepped in. My pictures were still hanging where I left them. The first one to catch my eye was the one of Eli. This project was making it awful hard to forget about him. I took down all the pictures and put them in a folder, for the moment.

Once I finished developing the rest of the film, I realized that Eli was in at least half of the pictures I took at the party. I felt like a total stalker. Good thing he’d never see all these. I left all the pictures drying and locked the darkroom up.

The entire way to chemistry, I resisted the urge to turn around and go home. I didn’t want to spend the entire period sitting that close to Vicky, but I couldn’t afford to miss any more classes. Especially a class I was borderline failing. With a huge sigh of resignation, I sauntered into the classroom.

I stopped dead when I saw Vicky and Candy laughing like this morning never even happened. I could feel my rage begin to build, again. I felt a deep vibrating in the pit of my stomach that began spreading to my head and the tips of my fingers. It was a sensation I had never felt before, but then again, I didn’t think I’d ever been this upset before, either.

I tried to ignore them by going straight over to the supply closet, but Vicky decided that she wanted to get supplies at that moment, too. I opened the closet and reached for a pair of goggles.

“Those are mine.” Vicky grabbed my wrist. I felt all the energy that had been pulsing through me shoot out my wrist and into her hand. “Ow!” She exclaimed, pulling her hand away.

I caught a glimpse before she covered it with her other hand. It was red,
really
red. She glared at me like I had just punched her and moved back to her desk.